Black Friday Gaming Goodies + Food for Thought

Dear friends, once again Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

While you are eating turkey and indulging in gluttony during wonderful November feast (our American friends) or just awaiting for Black Friday deals in other parts of the world, it’s time to see what companies and publishers have prepared for us this time.

Steam, as always, is heading for the game deals marathon, which will end on November 27. Today is a second round of major discounts, but more than 200 titles are available on a general sale. Check out Steam for the next several days and see if you can snap your long-awaited addiction set.

For gamers who remember white text on black screens and are not afraid of pixels, GOG has several outstanding games for free as well, like a classic oldschool vertical shooter Tyrian 2000 (oh, those good old times!). What is more, 1C Publishing catalogue is also on a huge -60% sale! Don’t wait till it’s over, it’s good old games!

In this rare interview, Houser outlines how the company makes its decisions — from booting Max Payne into the future to deciding not to give players much of a window into its games prior to their release. He also discusses lessons learned from Red Dead Redemption and the creative bible for theGrand Theft Auto series.

One of the secrets of success of a F2P game is the implementation of a powerful system of statistical analysis. Game data provides clues as to the users’ behavior and preferences.

By using this data and by carefully listening to the players’ remarks, developers can correct the flaws and build upon the strong points of the game. If the high concept of a game is good, the risk of game failure due to a perfectible development is eliminated, a major problem plaguing traditional game development.

Quote Unquote was born from the explosion of the indie videogaming scene and the ever increasing number of developers and how vocal many have become. Sometimes the quotes are a snapshot of a developer’s mindset from a certain time period, while most lean toward quoting some insight from their thoughts regarding videogame development.

Everyone is an artist at Supergiant Games. Gamersmint had a chance to interview their Creative Director Greg Kasavin. He talks about Bastion, Supergiant games, the indie scene in the west and a lot of other interesting things.